A question on World Book Day from Man of Tin’s post about what is our favourite non-hobby (he used DMZ) book prompted me to think. Yes it does happen occasionally!

Favourite is an interesting word because I think the books which influenced me the most are not necessarily my favourites.

I am old enough to remember the furor that several books caused when I was growing up.

• The Territorial Imperative by Rober Ardrey (1966);
• The Female Eunuch by Germain Greer (1970);
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig (1974);
• The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979);
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le Guin (1969).

These and many others not only challenged my thinking, but also started my love of reading.

While evolutionary science has advanced markedly since Ardrey’s times, his insights on human behavior have a timeless quality, and The Territorial Imperative should be compulsory reading. The key thought is about Man’s need to defend and conquer territory and is something still relevant some fifty years later!

While feminism had started to take hold during the Swinging Sixties, the majority of the world still expected women to exist in the kitchen, dishing up dinners and raising children rather than having a career. Women couldn’t own a mortgage or a car, without the signature of their father or husband.

Not about Zen or Motorcycle maintenance this book is about an actual and spiritual journey with his father and explores values and how one should live your life.

This book was so successful it has made the big screen, which is a bit of irony in itself!

Throughout The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy many characters try to find meaning in their lives and search for the significance of their own existences. As they focus on discerning the meaning of life, though, their happiness decreases, and their efforts to eke out an existential purpose ultimately prevent them from enjoying life.

Ursula Le Guin challenges our thinking about assimilation of difference in her work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness. The book tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose – and change – their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

However the book that I would pick up to read on world Book Day for enjoyment would have to be any of the Asterix or Tin Tin graphic novels! Not for any hidden meaning, but just for fun.

Of course there is always one of my vast collection of Phantom comics to read as well!